UDC

81ʼ42:821.111

Authors

Ekaterina S. Kupriyanova
Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University; ul. Bol’shaya Sankt-Peterburgskaya 41, Veliky Novgorod, 173003, Russian Federation;
e-mail: ek-kupr@mail.ru

Abstract

This article investigates a topical problem of modern literary criticism, namely interdiscursivity, which is a connection of literature with other fields of knowledge that lie outside the field of fiction. Jeanette Winterson’s works are a significant phenomenon of modern British literature. The distinctive features of her original prose are: autobiographism, numerous fairy-tale and mythological allusions with examples of her own mythmaking, as well as the presence of scientific discourse. The text under analysis is J. Winterson’s novel Lighthousekeeping, which adapts the achievements of biology, paleontology, physics, medicine, psychology, history, etc. Scientific discourse counterbalances the mythopoetical constituent of the novel. Its central allusion to the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R.L. Stevenson is associated with research into the achievements of modern psychology: Winterson’s plot presents a greater complexity of relations within the pair of doubles caused by a significant expansion of the psychological insight and immersion in the world of intricate multi-layered consciousness. Exploring the mental transformation of the characters, Winterson rejects the method of double rendering relevant to the story of Stevenson. In order to achieve the unity of the text, the author uses thread archetypal symbolic images placed in the modern scientific context. The archetypal image of the ship introduces a series of allusions (from Noah’s Ark to the Flying Dutchman), the semantic dominant of which is associated with a particular perception of time due to the discoveries made by М. Planck and А. Einstein. The leitmotif image of a ship within a ship is a metaphor of the existence of the past in the present and an embodiment of the protagonist’s split personality in Winterson’s novel.

Keywords

J. Winterson, Lighthousekeeping, interdiscursivity, allusions, author’s mythmaking, multilayered consciousness

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